We see how hard it is to find affordable car loans for 18 year olds

03/05/2011

In the eyes of the legal system in the United Kingdom, as soon as you hit 18 years of age you become an adult. Since you're expected to act responsibly now, you'll also become eligible for a number of things you were previously disqualified from due to your age. There's the fun stuff like going to the pub, or certain music concerts, but then there's also the really dull stuff like bank loans, overdrafts, insurance and credit cards.

Much as we'd all love to focus on the fun stuff, the reality is that we simply cannot, and the dull stuff tends to become a lot more prominent in our lives.

Okay, so we're not exactly making coming of age sound glamorous here, but rest assured that with these added responsibilities come a lot of additional perks - the main one being that you can now take out loans to buy expensive items like cars, or to pay off holidays with your friends.

The problem here is that unless you have been working in a steady job for a while and are earning regular income, you're going to find it quite tough getting any reputable lender to give you any substantial sums of money, but there are ways to quickly get around this if you are able to prove yourself financially responsible.

By building up your credit rating, you'll be showing potential lenders that you have your head screwed on and aren't going to be a liability to them. You can do this by taking out a low limit credit card from your current bank and ensuring that everything is paid off within the allotted time period so that you never incur interest.

Another approach is to purchase something on finance. While we wouldn't recommend a car, something relatively inexpensive is always a good start. For example a small LCD TV or video game console will not only keep you entertained, but buying them on finance and making your payments in a timely manner will go a long way to showing you are responsible.

Now when you approach a lending institution you'll be on much firmer footing, and should be able to wrangle some more agreeable rates from them. Unfortunately, the likelihood is that you are still going to need someone you know to go guarantor for your first loan. This ensures that should you fail to make payments, someone else is responsible for your debt, covering the banks and reducing their exposure.

That's not a reason for you to think you can simply skip payments though, as failure to do so, even on car loans for 18 year olds, will negatively affect your credit rating for years to come.